EN275 – Comics and Graphic Narrative

Explores the history and craft of graphic narrative from the eighteenth century to the contemporary moment. Students will consider how the medium of comics negotiates both visuality and textuality by tracing the role of typography and iconography in the development of graphic narrative from its designation as pop cultural ephemera to high literary and artistic form. Considers writers and theorists such as Roland Barthes, Scott McCloud, W.J.T. Mitchell, Marshall McLuhan, Lynd Ward, Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman, Marjane Satrapi, Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware, Alan Moore, and Alison Bechdel.